Dolly-Dolly-Dolly Out-Out-Out?
When Derek Draper re-emerged onto the scene as a blogger with LabourList, there was a justified mixture of scepticism, given his claims to be writing for sixty million, and concern, given that he was retaining Schillings, of Alisher Usmanov infamy, as lawyers.
I think, though, that people were willing to give him a relatively fair crack of the whip and LabourList is doing well on the rankings. Not only have he and Damien McBride screwed that up, they have brought blogging, the party and politics into disrepute.
It’s also doing damage to the party, crystallising the distance between high command and rank-and-file. It is certainly not what I signed up for when I joined the Labour party.
Officially, there is no relationship between LabourList and the Party. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t stand up. John Prescott, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Peter Hain,Tony Woodley, Harriet Harman, Fiona Millar and assorted other worthies suggest that this has at least some official party input. The emails between Derek Draper and someone inside Number Ten mean that, even if there is no official linkage, it is impossible for LabourList to maintain the creative distance it needs.
Draper thought that what was needed was profile and regular appearances on the television news. Whether he originated this thinking and passed it onto the Party or whether he took it from the Party is somewhat irrelevant, as what was and, IMHO, still is needed is a ‘place to speak’. Implicit in this is the ability to criticise the party. That is no easy thing for any organisation to do. As long as the appearance of being too close to the Party to be able to effectively criticise it exists, LabourList is going to be seen, fairly or not, as a series of puff pieces with the odd bit of mild criticism.
I would add that there is a need – dull and tedious as it can sometimes be – to debate internal party workings; STLP have a point. Well, at least on some things.
Labour does, of course, need to have a set of strategies for the internet. Command and control is not a viable one in the social media space. A good start might be for the Party – or, indeed, someone else – to ask Labour bloggers and blog readers what they want from the Party.
As an aside, it seems to be quite hard to set up a community. To an extent, it has happened with Liberal Conspiracy, but 20-20 Vision and Platform Ten somewhat disappeared.
I understand that Unite have said they are not funding LabourList. However, I’d like it be clear who is funding the website. I’d like to know what, if any, relationship exists between Unite (or, in fact, any other Labour-affiliated union) and LabourList.
Moving on, Derek Draper and Damien McBride. I should think that there are very few people who would have liked to have seen Red Rag come to fruition. It was pretty bloody awful.
I feel that if the rank and file membership were to make it clear that these actions are unacceptable, it might firstly make it slightly easier for people knocking on doors if the ordinary, rank-and-file members had been able to make it abundantly clear that the whole Sleazegate story went directly against what is stood for by most Labour people.
So, what to do?
Firstly, make it abundantly clear that certain forms of conduct are incompatible with being a member of the Party. Make it clear that we want to increase respect for politics, not appeal to the lowest common denominator.
Secondy, clarify the relationship between LabourList and the Party. Personally, I would favour something saying that LabourList is not endorsed by the party and should not receive any support, financially, by party officials’ work or in kind, as this would guarantee its independence, but I wouldn’t massively object to it having some kind of official status so long as it’s clear where everyone stands.
A motion going around CLPs to that effect might have the desired effect; I wonder if a line to that effect would make it through compositing to conference.
Secondly, I refer you to the Labour Party Rule Book, 2-A-6-A and 2-A-8
Chapter 2 – Membership Rules
Section A – Conditions of Membership6. To be and remain eligible for membership, each individual member must:
A. accept and conform to the constitution, programme, principles and policy of the party.[...]
8. No member of the party shall engage in conduct which in the opinion of the NCC is prejudicial, or in any act which in the opinion of the NCC is grossly detrimental to the party
There would seem to be a prima facie case for the National Constitutional Committee to look into this case and to see whether Messrs. Draper & McBride can remain party members.
I do not want to be vindictive and I do not want to drag this out any longer than necessary. However, for the reasons I set out above, I feel that some action by the party rank-and-file might be beneficial.
Opinions?
xD.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Clearly I agree with this Dave, except that I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with irreverent, hard-hitting, satirical, attacky blogs. “Red Rag” could have been that without being a smear factory. Indeed if we believe McBride and Draper – and why wouldn’t we?(!) they’re on our side after all! (?) – the horrid nasties had been shelved, even if the site had not.
If Labour List was supposed to be The New Statesman end of things, can we not accept that something at the Private Eye end would also be legitimate? The biggest problem with both concepts of Labour Blogging is this tension between authenticity and interest and being controlled from the centre.
A Private Eye spectrum blog could not possibly be controlled from the centre, even if it were pretty squeaky clean.
That’s the mistake they were making in these meetings – discussing a controlled satirical or irreverent blog. If they’d just been thinking of ways of getting better value out of the amateurs out here. Trying to be amusing while gently discrediting the opposition – Sadie, Kerron, LOL, Recess Monkey, Parburypolitica, Rupa (sometimes), the Boris blogs, Piper etc.
I am bemused by the Unite claim not to be the LL backers. I thought that had been established. Though I don’t see how it helps them to deny it if they were. Labour List – barring the Editor’s spats – seems reasonably legitimate.